Archive for the ‘rocket car’ tag

He was one-half of a pair of half-brothers that dared to challenge the reaches of the Bonneville Salt Flats with insanely powerful space-age thrust. Once partners, they became longtime bitter rivals, refusing to speak to one another. They are now reunited in eternity with the death of Walt Arfons on June 4 at the age of 96.

Walt and his half-sibling, Art, shared the same genes of inventiveness and craziness. During the 1950s, he became the racer credited with creating the first dragster powered by a jet engine, following a series of adventures fielding Green Monster dragsters stuffed with war-surplus Allison V-12 aero engines, usually with Art. At some point late in that decade, their relationship turned icy, probably because they then viewed each other as competitors. Next, the NHRA ruled aircraft-engine cars illegal for drag racing, which some cynics attributed to a worry that the Detroit manufacturers might be upstaged and turn away from the sport.

Walt Arfons, standing center, with the 1964 Wingfoot Express jet car.

Undeterred, both Walt and Art turned toward Bonneville. Walt, with Goodyear backing, fielded a Wingfoot Express jet car (above) that held the world land speed record at 413 MPH-plus for exactly three days. Art, backed by Firestone – that rivalry thing again – then snatched the record away in his own Green Monster. Walt subsequently became a supporting player in the titanic LSR battle between Art and Craig Breedlove, building a new Wingfoot Express powered by a brace of JATO rockets (top) for Tom Green to drive. Walt finally pulled back from the LSR scene while Art continued his escalating-velocity showdown with Breedlove. It ended by default in late 1966 when Art miraculously survived a 610 MPH crash after a tire blew. His hairbreadth escape led to a rapprochement of sorts between the brothers. Art Arfons died in 2007.